Sunday, July 10, 2011

The "new" Michter's gets a new home.

Just a few days ago, the current Michter's Distillery made the big announcement that they were going to renovate a historic building in downtown Louisville, KY. This once again gives the Michter's brand name a place to call home. It also means that within a few years, the Michter's we buy off the shelf may not just be bulk whiskey bought from another distiller, but actual whiskey fermented, distilled, and aged by Michter's. This is bittersweet to me because I believe the ONLY Michter's Distillery is in Schaefferstown. I am also very upset by the lies that the "new" Michter's keeps spewing. They claim they "hail from the oldest distilling company" in the United States. This is a lie. Michter's was created in the early 1950's by Louis Forman- making the Michter's name one of the newer names in American whiskey. The DISTILLERY which Michter's was made at was and is the oldest intact distillery site in the USA. The "new" Michter's also goes on to state as fact that their product was drank by George Washington's troops at Valley Forge. Again, a lie. No link has ever been found between the distillery (Let alone a brand created in the 1950's!) and George Washington. Michter's in Schaefferstown used "The Whiskey That Warmed The Revolution" but only speculated at a visit from Washington. It was the Lebanon Valley Coin Club that made a Michter's coin that probably started the rumor by depicting George Washington and some troops outside the distillery. Lastly, the "new" Michter's claims they have a Master Distiller- Mr. Willie Pratt. This is an impossibility. A Master Distiller is just that- the man that oversees the distillation of his company's product. Since the "new" Michter's does not distill, but buys already-distilled bulk whiskey from other distillers, there is no way they can have a Master Distiller. Willie Pratt simply selects the aged barrels then has them dumped for bottling. Once Michter's gets their new micro distillery up and running and Mr. Pratt is running the stills, only then will he be a real Master Distiller. But I digress.....

Anyway, John Hansell of Malt Advocate was on top of the story and officially broke the news on his blog. Read it here: